This summer Doc Kelley (Psychedelic Sangha co-founder and part-time New School professor) is teaming up with the singer-songwriter Chris Robinson (Black Crowes, CRB) for a special “Summer Learning Community” that is being offered online to undergraduate students at The New School’s Eugene Lang College located in New York City.

In this time of distance, Summer Learning Communities are designed to bring students together online in order to study and explore a new topic or issue. Our project is to cultivate a learning community to look into the alchemical nature of select Experimental films. We’ll consider the films of Kenneth Anger, Harry Everett Smith, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brian Butler and more.

Once a week for six weeks (July-August), we will meet online to meditate, watch film clips, and discuss. Activities will include: synchronous and asynchronous meditation and film viewing, assigned readings, discussion, alchemical film creation, as well as writing and reflection. And though our online meetings are private, you can follow along by monitoring posts made to this blog with the tag “alchemical.” Each week we’ll upload a new blog post with unique prompts for specific readings, meditation instruction, and tips for viewing.

Below you’ll find our growing database of links to all the films we’ll be viewing. We hope to someday offer a similar learning experience to members of Psychedelic Sangha.

Faculty

INSTRUCTOR: Christopher “Doc” Kelley

VISITING LECTURER: Chris Robinson

COURSE ASSISTANT: Jonathan Moodie

Timetable of Zoom Meetings with Topics

July 8 // Orientation

July 15 // Aleister Crowley & the films of Kenneth Anger

July 22 // Mysticism in the works of Harry Everett Smith

July 29 // “Psychomagic” in the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

August 5 // Brian Butler and company

August 12 // Student Projects

Aleister Crowley

Primary source materials:

Crowley, Aleister. Magick (Book 4, Part 1: Meditation)
Crowley, Aleister. Magick (Book 4, Part 2: Theory)
Crowley, Aleister. Magick (Book 4, Part 3: Magick in Theory and Practice)

Secondary source materials:

Churton, Tobias. Aleister Crowley in India: The Secret Influence of Eastern Mysticism on Magic and the Occult.

Kenneth Anger

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Original Films:

Magick Lantern Cycle:
- Fireworks (1947)
- Puce Moment (1949, 1970)
- Rabbit’s Moon (1950, 1971)
- Eaux d’Artifice (1953)
- Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) / Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1966 “Sacred Mushroom Edition”)
- Scorpio Rising (1964)
- Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
- Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
- Lucifer Rising (1972, 1980)
The Man We Want to Hang (2002)
Brush of Baphomet (2009)

Supplemental Links:

72 hours in André Balazs’ Chateau Marmont with Kenneth Anger (2018, dir. Floria Sigismondi)
"The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Kenneth Anger" (lecture by Christian Giudice for the Speech in Silence podcast)
“Lucifer Over Luxor: Archaeology, Egyptology, and Occultism in Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle” by Ethan Doyle White
“Kenneth Anger: 1966 Screening Of His Magick Lantern Cycle” by Mike Everleth
“Magick in Theory and Practice: Ritual Use of Colour in Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of My Demon Brother” by Deborah Allison
“Illuminating Lucifer” by Carel Rowe
Raising Lucifer, Part One and Part Two (2015, dir. Brian Butler)
Lucifer Rising original soundtrack by Jimmy Page
Kenneth Anger official site

Harry Everett Smith

Original Films:

Early Abstractions :
- No. 1: A Strange Dream (1939)
- No. 2: Message From the Sun (1941)
- No. 3: Interwoven (1946)
- No. 4: Manteca (1947)
- No. 5: Circular Tensions (Homage to Oskar Fischinger) (1949)
- No 6 (1950)
- No. 7 (1951)
- No. 8 (1954)
- No. 9 (1954)
- No. 10 (1956)
No. 11: Mirror Animations (1956)
No. 12: Heaven and Earth Magic (1962)
No. 13: Oz (1962)
No. 14: Late Superimpositions (1965)
No. 15 (1966)
No. 16: Oz—The Tin Woodman’s Dream (1967)
No. 17: Mirror Animations (extended version) (1979)
No. 18: Mahagonny (1980)
No. 19 (1980)
No. 20: Fragments of a Faith Forgotten (1981)